DOE loan program official steps down

The Obama administration official at the center of the Solyndra controversy is leaving DOE.

Jonathan Silver, the director of the Energy Department’s loan office, is stepping down to become a distinguished visiting fellow at Third Way, DOE confirmed Thursday afternoon.

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Silver has held his post since November 2009, roughly two months after the DOE finalized its $535 million loan guarantee to the troubled California solar manufacturer. While he wasn’t involved in approving Solyndra’s loan guarantee, Silver found himself with the biggest political target on his back so far as congressional Republicans stalked for answers from the Obama administration.

In a statement, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that Silver informed him in early July of his intent to leave, “shortly after … it became clear that no significant new funds were included for the loan program” in the budget.

“Since he joined the department in November 2009, Jonathan assembled and managed a truly outstanding team that has transformed the program into the world leader in financing innovative clean energy projects,” Chu added. “Under his leadership, the loan program has demonstrated considerable success, with a broad portfolio of investments that will help American companies compete in the global clean energy market.

“Because of my absolute confidence in Jonathan and the outstanding work he has done, I would welcome his continued service at the department, but I completely understand the decision he has made,” the statement said.

Before heading the loan office, Silver was a managing director of Core Capital Partners, a early-stage investor in alternative energy technology, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications and software, which he co-founded in 1999.

Silver also held several government advisory positions during the Clinton-era Commerce, Interior and Treasury departments.

Before the Solyndra affair, DOE sought more media and public attention for the loan office to put a face on the administration’s job creation efforts. Earlier this year in an interview with POLITICO, Silver spoke of the office with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

“I was a venture capitalist before coming to do this job and this has been a little like building a startup, essentially from scratch, while at the same time, producing goods and services — that is, investing money,” Silver said at the time.

“This is not a grant program where you issue tons and tons of little grants. These are very sophisticated, customized, highly negotiated one-off transactions. They’re handled here exactly the same way they are in the private sector,” he said.

“When these [deals] happen, they’re really, really big. These are $2 million deals, these are $2 billion deals,” he said. “These are the biggest transactions in our industry. No one is working at a scale like this — anywhere.”

Even so, he added, “We expect to get repaid.”

Darren Samuelsohn and Alex Guillen contributed to this report.

Clarification: The headline on an earlier version of this story misstated the reason for Silver's departure.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:26 p.m. on October 6, 2011.